Faster in­ter­net speeds promised as part of £4.6m trans­for­ma­tion

Schools and coun­cil ser­vices should see huge ben­e­fits

Quicker in­ter­net speeds are be­ing promised for schools and of­fice work­ers as part of a £4.6 mil­lion con­tract to trans­form Fife Coun­cil’s com­puter net­work.

MLL Tele­com, from Mar­low, Buck­ing­hamshire, has won the deal to boost ca­pa­bil­ity for lo­cal au­thor­ity sites over the next five years.

Fife Coun­cil say the move will cut costs by more than 25% over the term of the con­tract.

Un­der the terms of the agree­ment, MLL Tele­com will re­place the ex­ist­ing wide area net­work (WAN) in­fra­struc­ture, which con­nects com­put­ers geo­graph­i­cally far apart.

Pupils and teach­ers and Fife should also ben­e­fit, as MLL Tele­com is aim­ing to de­liver a boost in speeds to all sec­ondary schools and an in­creased band­width, which will help ad­dress de­mands for cloud and in­ter­net ser­vices in class­rooms.

Char­lie An­der­son, chief in­for­ma­tion of­fi­cer for Fife Coun­cil, said: “It is crit­i­cal that we re­ceive the right level of con­nec­tiv­ity to meet our in­creas­ing dig­i­tal needs.

“The en­hanced band­width will pos­i­tively im­pact on many coun­cil ser­vices, par­tic­u­larly in ed­u­ca­tion, where the in­crease in in­ter­net-based teach­ing has placed added pres­sure to up­grade our con­nec­tiv­ity.”

MLL Tele­com has also pledged it will sup­port science, tech­nol­ogy, en­gi­neer­ing, arts and maths ini­tia­tives across pri­mary and sec­ondary ed­u­ca­tion, cre­ate ap­pren­tice­ships for lo­cal peo­ple and work with char­i­ties.

It fol­lows re­cent con­tract wins for the com­pany in Stir­ling, South Ayr­shire and Perth and Kin­ross.

Craig Scott, the com­pany’s busi­ness devel­op­ment di­rec­tor, lives in Fife and said he was de­lighted to see his firm se­lected.

“With the ever in­creas­ing pres­sure on pub­lic sec­tor bud­gets, con­nec­tiv­ity is high on the agenda of pub­lic sec­tor or­gan­i­sa­tions and coun­cils such as Fife are recog­nis­ing the value of en­hanced con­nec­tiv­ity for the de­liv­ery of pub­lic ser­vices, par­tic­u­larly in ed­u­ca­tion,” he said.

Work is due to be­gin at the end of Au­gust and should be com­pleted by Septem­ber 2020.